Focus Natura

Focus Natura runs from Ribeira da Boaventura in Santa Cruz, on Madeira's south-east coast near the airport. Pedro Vasconcelos and Hugo Silva, both instructor-level, co-lead the centre alongside Open Water Instructor Sara Fernandes; Focus Natura has operated since 2006. Every course runs on the SSI ladder, from the introductory Try Scuba through the recreational and specialty range to Divemaster, Dive Guide and an Open Water Instructor Training Course.

Diving here is boat-only: there is no shore-dive product, and four trips (the Bow Belle wreck, Ilhas Desertas, North Coast and the Corveta Afonso Cerqueira) need at least four divers booked to go ahead. The centre's own material names 23 dive locations along Madeira's south and east coasts, among them Ponta do Garajau's long-resident groupers, a current-swept wreck ground at Badajeira off Ponta de São Lourenço, and the Corveta Afonso Cerqueira itself, scuttled in 2018 off Cabo Girão.

Underwater photography runs through the centre's identity: it has organised and entered the European Underwater Photography and Video Championship and ran the first Madeira Open in the same discipline. It also states recognition as a diving centre for divers with disabilities.

Reviews split into two registers. Most, spread from 2015 to 2026, are warm and specific: divers name Pedro, Hugo and Sara individually for putting them at ease, with one instructor credited for transferring underwater photos to a guest's phone before they were even out of the water. One account stands apart: a detailed 2023 report describes a panicking diver in rough conditions met with little reassurance from Hugo specifically, before Pedro and Sara stepped in and calmed things down. A second, older account describes a scheduling mismatch, booked for a single dive and placed on a double-tank trip instead. Both are single, uncorroborated reports, not a pattern.